Review- Roads And Bridges by Nadia Eghbal

Book review on Roads and Bridges - Unseen Labor behind our public digital infrastructure

September 26, 2021 · OpenSource FreeSoftware BookReview

Review: Roads And Bridges by Nadia Eghbal

Download this 145 pages book from here for free.

This book dives in depth with the issues of free and open source software ecosystem; public digital infrastructure. The same infrastructure is currently powering the digital world from the stock market to newspapers to hospitals to space missions.

Nearly all software today relies on free, public code (called “open
source” code), written and maintained by communities of developers
and other talents. Much like roads or bridges, which anyone can walk
or drive on, open source code can be used by anyone—from compa-
nies to individuals—to build software. This type of code makes up
the digital infrastructure of our society today.

Comparing digital v/s physical

Public Infrastructures	Physical	Digital
Examples	Roads & Bridges	Apps, Softwares & Internet
Build Time	Slow	Fast
Cost	High	Cheap
Rigidity	Very high	Changes rapidly
Utility	determined before building	determined post building
Managed	Centrally by one organization	often distributed without any authority
Maintenance	Low to none	very high
Life	Long; some 100+ years	Short as ecosystem frequently changes

Challenges
1. Money has been taboo for the community
2. No sustainable business model
3. Most key projects have one/two developers
4. No one wants to pay for the free open source software
5. Maintenance is boring
6. New society has fewer capable developers
Hope
1. Building awareness: Involving governments, institutions and companies to treat digital infrastructure as public good and take its ownership for long term maintenance.
2. Measuring usage and impact of digital infrastructure; then to track and improve.
3. Encouraging standardization across open source projects
4. Expanding pool of open source contributors
What can we do
1. Contribute regularly; code, document, donate or share
2. Demand our institution, company and government to support open source by
  - using/creating/maintaining open source projects
  - donation
  - sponsoring developers
  - join TODOGroup and start a open source program